Getting up in the night

[Bananarama]

Hiya, I’m writing this on behalf of my mum who is my dads carer who has severe Alzheimer’s. It has progressively got worse this year and has got to the stage where my dad is now waking every night for hours on end, turning on lights, wondering around ect.
My poor mum is getting hardly any sleep and then looking after my dad all day the next day, she’s just exhausted . Any ideas how to deal with this new stage?

 

[Loisand]

Hiya, I’m writing this on behalf of my mum who is my dads carer who has severe Alzheimer’s. It has progressively got worse this year and has got to the stage where my dad is now waking every night for hours on end, turning on lights, wondering around ect.
My poor mum is getting hardly any sleep and then looking after my dad all day the next day, she’s just exhausted . Any ideas how to deal with this new stage?

Hi, your mother has my sympathies, I had the wandering about for over 12 months with mom, then unfortunately (but fortunately for me) she broke her hip, the wandering as now stopped, and that is only because she has trouble getting herself out of bed, I know that sounds very harsh, but I was totally exhausted, at least now I do get a bit of decent sleep!!

 

[Kevinl]

Hi Katy, welcome to TP
Unfortunately many GP's don't like prescribing sleeping tablets under these circumstances as they're both addictive and are only a short term solution, added to that they can increase the risk of a fall in the night time wanderings.
One woman I know was given 6 or 8 sleeping pills per month but then she got a new GP and they were stopped on the grounds of his safety.
My wife's been in care now for over 3 years and the staff read out the files pretty much ignoring the fact I'm there and I regularly hear Mrs X hasn't slept for 36 hours or Mr Y hasn't slept in 48 hours it happens al the time.
According to my wife's records she was in bed but "agitated" at 5am today so the night staff changed, showered and put her in her big armchair/wheelchair then took her to the lounge and gave her hot chocolate, her 30 minute obs show her as being awake ever since.
Some people with AZ seem to loose their body clock so when you're awake, you're awake, the concept of "appropriate" things to do at certain times of the day or night is irrelevant.
I was sat on the patio of the care home eating an ice cream with some of the residents, one man asked me the time, I told him it was 4 o'clock and he asked me in the morning or the evening? Well, given we were in Salford, famous for many things but being the "land of the midnight sun" isn't one of them, midnight slum possibly in years gone by.
K

 

[Bunpoots]

Welcome to DTP @Katyburton

I'm sorry to hear that your dad has started mixing up night and day. Unfortunately his is very common with dementia and one of the hardest things to deal with. I've seen various suggestions on how to deal with this situation including things like giving a couple of paracetamol just before bedtime as people with dementia are not good at recognising pain but it will keep them awake. Worth a try.
I also know of at least one member who give a whisky or a hot toddy to their PWD and that has helped them sleep through the night.
Another slept during the day when her husband did.

If nothing works others have slept in a separate room and made the house safe and let their PWD wander then clear up after them in the morning. I used this technique with my dad except I was in a different house as dad lived on his own. He was always fine in the morning when I got there - usually asleep in a chair. The only thing that used to worry me was his legs were swollen as he didn't lie down with his feet up enough.

I hope these suggestions help. Has your mum got carers to help with your dad?
Looking after someone with dementia is exhausting even without being kept awake all night.

 

[Ohso]

I have occasional nights like this with mum, but thankfully rare at the moment, I have found that rountine works really well. I open the curtains in her room at 7.30am and close them again at 7.30pm, all meals are pretty much timed the same every day and I try to stick to routines in between.
On those nights when mum seems agititated I can generally see if coming as it starts earlier in the day (we originally treated this for a urine infection but after several all clears we now just accept it as part of dementia) anyway,on those nights I tend to sit with her in her room to encourage her to go back to sleep instead of getting out of bed and sometimes it works, other times not but I work on the principle I am not going to get any sleep anyway, either for worrying she is wandering around on her own or getting up as she comes into my room and puts the lights on.
Its a tough part of dementia, as without a good nights sleep everything seems worse.
I also find mum is worse if she has been watching TV, not sure if it is the flashing lights of the screen or the content of the programes that her brain is trying to make sense of later, Midsummer Murders seemed to have her paranoid that someone was trying to poison her through her hairbrush, so she couldnt sleep for feeling anxious.

 

[Roseleigh]

Welcome to DTP @Katyburton

I'm sorry to hear that your dad has started mixing up night and day. Unfortunately his is very common with dementia and one of the hardest things to deal with. I've seen various suggestions on how to deal with this situation including things like giving a couple of paracetamol just before bedtime as people with dementia are not good at recognising pain but it will keep them awake. Worth a try.
I also know of at least one member who give a whisky or a hot toddy to their PWD and that has helped them sleep through the night.
Another slept during the day when her husband did.

If nothing works others have slept in a separate room and made the house safe and let their PWD wander then clear up after them in the morning. I used this technique with my dad except I was in a different house as dad lived on his own. He was always fine in the morning when I got there - usually asleep in a chair. The only thing that used to worry me was his legs were swollen as he didn't lie down with his feet up enough.

I hope these suggestions help. Has your mum got carers to help with your dad?
Looking after someone with dementia is exhausting even without being kept awake all night.

Hiya, I’m writing this on behalf of my mum who is my dads carer who has severe Alzheimer’s. It has progressively got worse this year and has got to the stage where my dad is now waking every night for hours on end, turning on lights, wondering around ect.
My poor mum is getting hardly any sleep and then looking after my dad all day the next day, she’s just exhausted . Any ideas how to deal with this new stage?

Hiya, I’m writing this on behalf of

Hiya, I’m writing this on behalf of my mum who is my dads carer who has severe Alzheimer’s. It has progressively got worse this year and has got to the stage where my dad is now waking every night for hours on end, turning on lights, wondering around ect.
My poor mum is getting hardly any sleep and then looking after my dad all day the next day, she’s just exhausted . Any ideas how to deal with this new stage?

 

[Roseleigh]

Hi Katy,
I am in exactly same situation as your mum. It’s pretty hellish. I have tried Melatonin which seems to help a bit, mainly me taking it too which enables me to sleep through some of his wandering! It helps him sleep a bit more but nowhere near enough. I am looking into putting him in a care home for respite breaks, which perhaps your mum might think about ?